I’m getting a little better on the whole posting thing. I don’t know what it is with me and this year. I barely have any time to write anything these days, much less on here.

But I have been busy on Twitter, of all things. I’m usually not the biggest Twitter enthusiast, but it just seems better to post bite-size chunks right now.

But I have been gaming again, which is good.

Let’s see, I’ve picked up a few games: Sonic Generations and Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed for Xbox 360, Epic Mickey 2 for Wii, Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion for 3DS, and took advantage of the Fall Steam sale, where I raked in a few Lucasarts point and click titles, Binding of Isaac, realMyst, and a few more. Again, where to find the time….

(Here’s my Steam profile, by the way, in case you wish to add me.)

Gaming interest wise, I’ve been on a Sega kick of late. It seems like Sega is getting back to embracing its roots again, which is refreshing. I loved the Master System, Genesis, and Dreamcast, and looking back, they really did provide some innovative content that Nintendo never did. That’s Read the rest of this entry

Tonight, I got to see a preview of Wreck-It Ralph in 3D.

If you want the short of it, it’s now one of my “Top 10″ Disney animated films.

The long of it, however, is best explained for a number of reasons. And you can start with the poster:

Basically, this is Toy Story for video games. What happens when the arcade closes for the night?

This movie has a TON of cameos, making Captain N: The Game Master look pale by comparison. You can spot dozens of games in the 30 year time progression of the arcade, from Star Wars to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, to a virtual “Who’s Who” of classics. That’s nothing to say of the cameos of characters running around in “Game Central Station”. These two scenes alone are going to cause a lot of frame by frame scanning when it comes to home video. One cameo moment actually shocked me how “true to character” they were. I won’t reveal anything, but there are a few delightful nods. Surprisingly, however, is how devoid of Nintendo this movie is. Yes, Bowser is in there, and there are two other nods, but Nintendo was Read the rest of this entry

I’m still on the fence about the whole “Virtual Console” thing. While I was initially very excited about the whole concept and initial execution on the Wii, the total mishandling, content stoppage, and the recent game removals have soured me from ever utilizing the service on the Wii again.

And now that a similar service has been on the 3DS, I still remain skeptical. Sure there are Game Boy games, and Game Boy Color games, and now NES games (which I think have replaced the idea of the Turbo Duo ever appearing on the service due to Hudson being bought out by Konami, and the mass content removals on the Wii), but there are a LOT of games on those three consoles alone. And I mean well over a thousand potential titles. Well, more “hundreds”, I suppose with all the licensing issues. But do we really need Home Alone for the Game Boy?

Now, finally after almost a year, we have Game Gear titles. The Game Gear was Sega’s attempt to take on the Game Boy back in the 8-bit days. It was essentially a portable Master System, but boasted full screen color at the cost Read the rest of this entry

And so, a single, 2D level of Sonic Generations came out on the 360 today, with cute, chubby Sonic, instead of the leaner more “extreme” Sonic (I seem to be using the word “extreme” a lot in my posts of late. If I speak of parachute pants and M.C. Hammer, be sure to shake me back into reality, will you?).

As the game loaded after the cheerful and familiar opening theme of the first Sonic game, I found myself repeating “Please don’t suck”, as I braced myself for whatever may happen. I’ve walked this path too many times before, and each time Sega promises “It’s going to get better” is usually met with varying degrees of success.

Well, I’ll be…. It didn’t suck.

Sonic Generations features a much tighter feel of play control in that one Green Hill Zone. Sonic hopped and bopped through the stage, and I never once got angry when I missed a jump or lost rings, as I felt that was more my error. I’m not used to playing a game that feels like the Genesis games, and had prepared for floaty controls.

There are some 2.5D effects, but it’s very much a 2D platformer at Read the rest of this entry

I’ve been on the “outs” with the hedgehog of late.

It’s hard to believe that Sonic is turning 20 this year. Good Lord. It just messes with you when you realize that much time has passed from that lazy Summer in 1991 when I alternated between the first Sonic game, and Sega’s equally fun Spider-Man title for the Genesis. But here we are.

And a lot of things have changed since then. The little blue guy has seen how many sequels and spin-offs now, strolling well into Mega Man territory with the sheer amount of games, but unlike Mario, which (back then, anyway) seemed a little more reserved in spin-off titles, Sonic was everywhere. Perhaps too much so at some points.

Outside of the 16-bit sequels, the Sega CD game, and perhaps Sonic’s first 3D Adventure outing, most sequels lost their way, either promoting stupid gimmicks, a never-ending expanding cast of quickly forgettable side characters, and the loss of that “’90′s attitude” he was so well known for. Even Sonic the Hedgehog 4 just missed… something (I attribute that to those goofy physics they slapped in the game).

Heck, the most fun I’ve had with Read the rest of this entry

The Sega fan is/was such a different creature than the Nintendo fan. For the 1980′s/1990′s, you chose one side: Nintendo or Sega. I made like Switzerland, and actually enjoyed both. There was always something “edgy” about Sega. Their games had “attitude”, which was so popular in the 1990′s, and so different that what passes for those terms today.

The Sega Master System, though lacking the 3rd party support that Nintendo had (largely due to the near-monopoly The Big N had on the gaming industry back in the day), they still produced some quirky and unique titles, one of the most standout being the original Phantasy Star, which blew away most 16-bit offerings. And who could forget Alex Kidd and Fantasy Zone? Sega also had a number of notable arcade titles, such as Space Harrier, Shinobi, Outrun, Altered Beast, Golden Axe….

But Sega didn’t really find their foothold until the Genesis. It was here where we saw sequels to most of those beloved titles, as well as introducing newcomers like Ecco the Dolphin, ToeJam & Earl, Streets of Rage, and of course, Sonic the Hedgehog.

32X and Sega CD struggled, as did the Saturn, but it still Read the rest of this entry