To be honest, I’ve been feeling a little weird about the whole “video game” thing.

That’s not to say that I’m shutting down the site, or even *gasp* giving up gaming, it’s just that the industry feels weird now.

I keep all of my legacy consoles. I love a good arcade when I find one. I currently play things for my 3DS, Xbox 360 and Steam, as well as a few iOS games, but damn it all if I can’t figure out this new generation.

It’s like game consoles don’t want to be game consoles anymore. I really started thinking about this after the Xbox One reveal in relation to my own personal tastes in gaming. Granted, I like the idea of carry on my profile and Gamerscore legacy. I think that’s a natural fit, but there are some things I’m not liking. All of this digital ownership that makes it seem like the User doesn’t “own” anything anymore. The “always on” Kinect somewhat creeps me out, despite assurances that privacy will be the forefront of concerns. I don’t want ads directed at me over random, private conversations. I don’t want intimate moments Read the rest of this entry

There have been few greater puzzlements on the NES than Taboo: The Sixth Sense.

One one hand, this was perhaps one of the first genuine “casual” games on the NES, as it dealt withdealing virtual tarot cards to divine fortunes.

On the other hand, it was one of the few NES games to deliver frontal nudity and images of Satan.

Bear in mind that this was before the ESRB, and Nintendo had its own self-censoring policies with dealt with profanity, religious imagery, and extreme violence. But it wasn’t perfect. Rambo said “Damn”. Crosses still snuck into a few games. One game would be healivy censored while another slipped pastt he radar. And then there was this title:

Rare developed this title, while my hometown’s Tradewest published this game. A game so “evil” that it came wrapped in a black cloth pouch, yet could be stored the same way as you would Top Gun or Balloon Fight. Curiously, the game promoted itself as being a “Time Machine”, though Doc Brown or the TARDIS never make an appearance. Yet this game exists, and I couldn’t tell you why.

If there are any “good” points to the game is that the Read the rest of this entry

Unless you’ve been living under a rock (man), two of video game’s most famous blue characters have come together for a comic book team-up adventure thanks to Archie Comics.

Mega MAn meets Sonic the Hedgehog, and of course do battle before they team up against all of their respective foes in one big battle.

The comic, if you haven’t seen it, is pretty fun and works better than you would believe. One would hope so, as it’s been hyped for months. So far so good….

Which really got me thinking about the whole concept of the idea, as well as where video games are today. To be candid, I don’t see why Sega and Capcom just don’t go ahead and do this as some 2D platforming mega adventure. It’s not an impossible concept as Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon did something similar years ago on Game Boy Advance:

The concepts are more similar when compared. Both the main antagonists, Dr. Wily and Dr. Robotnik (yeah, I said Robotnik, not Eggman) are both robot creating evil scientists bent on taking over the world. Mega Man hates spikes. Sonic hates water. Both games are filled with these obstacles. Read the rest of this entry

I have been very impressed with Netherrealm’s track record. Their Mortal Kombat relaunch was excellent, allowing the studio to really craft a deep and fine-tuned game free from the shackles of ruched development that Midway often subjected their games to.

And now, Netherrealm has decided to try their hand with the DC Universe. This isn’t new, of course. They did this years earlier with Mortal Kombat Vs. DC, a game that I felt didn’t get enough credit considering it was the last game caught in Midway’s financial woes. And honestly, it’s hard merging a universe of characters known for explicit killing against heroes that simply never kill.

That doesn’t mean they can’t beat each other senseless, however.

Oh, and that happens here. Because the rules have changed, and when you’re dealing with characters that can level cities, it has to be intense.

*small spoiler, but you need to know the plot to understand why things are the way they are*

And the story itself is. After Joker tricks Superman into destroying Metropolis and his family, Superman no longer restrains himself, crushing anything he doesn’t like, and creating a new world order that establishes “peace” through control, fear, and subjugation. Read the rest of this entry

I think it is any gamer’s dream to create a video game of their own.

Unfortunately, the majority of the content on the “Indie” section of Xbox Live shows what happens when it goes horribly wrong.

That’s not to say that every game is bad. But when you scroll through the list of endless zombie games, Minecraft clones, dating sims, controller vibration tests, and cover art that looks best left to the margins of some fifth grader’s notebook paper, you have to wonder how these people got dev kits.

Fortunately, Arcadecraft was a game that was not made in five minutes. And it shows.

Actually, it’s a really neat idea: It’s a sim-style game where players are put in charge of their own arcade, circa 1980′s. So that means that you are there from the beginning of the “big deal” time of the arcade. And it treats it accordingly, including 1984′s “crash”.

Players sort out everything: Floor patterns, decorations, neon signs, vending machines and jukeboxes. All to make that “perfect” arcade. And then, of course, are the games. None of them are licensed games, but if you know the era, you can read between the lines to see which Read the rest of this entry

At this point, I don’t care what the game is like. This commercial for it is solid gold: