• 13Dec 07

  Sonic, just don't talk buddy...

  Three cheers, for my Dreamcast is here! ...Or has been here for a week, but I didn't have time to blog about it. Why not? Cuz I'm busy playing Sonic, of course! I should have a decent review up somewhere next week. here are some "first impressions" that will make it into my review.

  

  The Good:

  + Fast paced + very refreshing + pleasant music score + good re-play value (some very challenging objectives await those who seek all emblems)

  The Bad:

  + Glitchy Camera Angles + Voice Acting is outright horrendous + Bosses are often way too easy, leaving you begging for a serious challenge

  The In-Between:

  + It's great that there are multiple characters to play with, it really is... but why are some of them so lame to use?

  + Many of the Mini Games have a great potential to be serious worthwile fun, yet they lack that final push and seem more like "filler" to me.

  ---

  Other than that, the fall term at school is coming to an end. I have a single final on Monday... then the very last one on Tuesday. Guys, winter break is here! Let the games begin!

  • Posted Dec 13, 2007 8:02 pm GMT
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• 28Nov 07

  Dreamcast Family Issues

  

  I found this amusing, thus decided to post it for you all. I'd like to credit the artist, but I have no idea how to find out who "SLUN" is. Found this picture randomly on the web. Anyway, it is too bad that the poor "DeeCee" had so many "family issues."

  • Posted Nov 28, 2007 11:34 pm GMT
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• 23Nov 07

  Code Monkeys

  Few months ago I have noticed a curious show on G4 TV. I wanted to introduce it here, in case you have been living under a rock (or outside of USA). It might just be the very first comedy show dedicated to gamers. Not too mention, it is done in a very original "retro gaming" looking vibe. My only complaint is that the script work is not as good as it could be. Less fart-jokes and more mockumentary please (video game related naturally). In any case, it is nice to see something "for gamers" and most likely "by gamers."

  

  Here is some basic info: "The plot of Code Monkeys revolves around the fictitious video game company GameaVision (a play on companies like ActiVision and ColecoVision) and its eccentric employees, mainly slackers Dave and Jerry. Many of the references in the show suggest that it is set sometime around 1982 (in episode five, Clare states that "it's the 80s!"), during the Atari-era video game boom and E.T. for the Atari 2600. However, the show is full of so many (possibly intentional) anachronisms that the actual date will probably never be made clear.
  
  The animation in Code Monkeys is unique in that all of the characters are rendered in 8-bit graphics and all of the backgrounds are in 16-bit, reminiscent of the NES-era video games. The sprites used for the characters have many similarities to the sprites seen in the Kunio-kun series, although the proportions are different.

  

  The look of the show is also supposed to mimic the structure and appearance of a retro video game. The beginning of the show begins with a screen flashing "PLAYER 1 START!" and the end of show closes with a black "GAME OVER" screen. The top of the screen is occupied by a health bar consisting of seven heart containers (a la The Legend of Zelda) and a point counter which randomly dispenses points throughout the episode. At each commercial break, a small pause box appears in the middle of the screen which freezes the show (although this was sometimes replaced with a box that read "An error has occurred. Please wait while Code Monkeys reboots", a la pre-OSX Macs).

  The humor in Code Monkeys is mostly grounded in toilet humor and black comedy, but some of the show's jokes stem from its numerous references to 1980s video games, including Castlevania, Mega Man, Contra, Ikari Warriors, Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!, and others. This also extends to cameos from well known video game developers, who appear in the show pitching their ideas for the games that would later make them famous to GameaVision, only to be rejected, insulted, and sometimes injured or killed off: for example, a child prodigy version of David Jaffe got his face kicked in after pitching the idea for God of War, and Lorne Lanning got electrocuted and tossed in a well after pitching Oddworld then later being eaten by a bear." source: wikipedia.

  

  If you like what you see, here are a few links

  Official Code Monkeys Website

  Code Monkeys Videos

  What do you all think of Code Monkeys?

  • Posted Nov 23, 2007 6:48 pm GMT
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