I should have been a pair of ragged claws

I should never have entered my credit card number into my Wii. In the last two weeks I've already purchased four games: One sublime classic (Gunstar Heroes), an interesting Sonic Team platformer (Ristar), one of the first console turn-based strategy games (Military Madness), and a nostalgia-fueled waste of $5 (Ice Hockey [ 1 ] ). The Virtual Console lineup started with some fantastic games (Mario 64, the NES Legend of Zelda), but the most tempting nectar are the Monday releases of Genesis and Turbo Graphics 16 classics that I've never played before. Part of my enthusiasm for the virtual console comes from my bizarre laziness when it comes to changing games. Inertia is overly involved with my gaming choices; if the disk is in the system, then I'm probably going to keep playing that. It's as if taking out game disks is so hard . The Wii lets me play all these games without having to get out of my seat! It's great! My PC theoretically has the same feature, but it requi

A few of co-workers have gotten Nintendo DSs for themselves or their family and some have asked me what I recommend. Well, how about recommendations in haiku form? Everybody loves that! Elite Beat Agents Male cheerleaders? Huh?! This comic music game grooves even with Believe [ 1 ] . Dragon Quest: Rocket Slime Look what's on my head! I'll fire it from my huge tank! Hope you like mad puns. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow Has Metroid-vania [ 2 ] ever been done better? No. Take notes, Nintendo! Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Nethack [ 3 ] , lose no sleep; It's a puddle to your lake. Still, fun in the car. [ 1 ]Yes, Cher's Believe . While some may question the track list , Elite Beat Agents remains a fun game no matter how many hundreds of times you've heard the songs. [ 2 ] Metroid-vania is a sub-genre of 2D platformers defined by their maze-like non-linearity and the collection of abilities that open up new areas to explore. The first Metroid-vania was Nintendo's Metroid, a

These impressions are from ~30 minutes of play time. I got it today from a co-worker. The controls feel almost uncomfortably loose; it takes a while to go from the analog stick to tilting of the wiimote in a racing game. It's seems closer to an SSX than a typical racing game in that it's more about crazy jumps than riding a tight line. It rewards "style" driving more than any other racing game I've seen. Progression through the game is based on the number of points you accumulate through the level. You get points for doing stunts, jumps, and smashing up others cars as well as your finish position, so theoretically you can come in last and still "win" and get an S rank. (It's certainly easier to get an S rank with the 1st place bonus points, but it's possible otherwise.) There's also these bizarre power ups that deform the terrain; typically they make steep ramps for some ludicrous jumps, but sometimes they just make a ditch. (Maybe some are b

Going through photos tonight, I found a picture of Todd and Vicki that I think captures them both pretty well. The photo was taken by Vicki without my permission.

All the stars aligned for a week of gaming: the Nintendo Wii was released with the latest Zelda game the week before Thanksgiving and I had vacation days to burn, and my brother, Todd, was in a similar situation. So he took the bus from Manhattan on Monday and we tag-teamed the game, swapping between each dungeon, until it's completion last night. Todd and I have done this a number of times many years ago, but the change to act like children again and play (and complete) a game in one of our favorite series together made this week one of my most enjoyable vacations. No small credit can be given to Bessie who demonstrated saint-like patience with the bleary-eyed bums in her basement yammering on about heart containers, master keys, and the saddening absence of Tingle. She did indulge in some some light jeering, saying that Link is such a cute elf and wondering where Legolas could be. I have a good bit to say about Twilight Princess, the Nintendo Wii, and the Zelda series in general,

Todd: This game needs a Tingle [ 1 ] ! DeathMonkey: :& DeathMonkey: what game? Todd: My game. DeathMonkey: hmmm Todd: Come on, every game needs a character that just freaks you out in it. :) Todd: Hope he's in the new Zelda [ 2 ] . Todd: If he's not I'm gonna be UP-SET! DeathMonkey: I'm sure he will be DeathMonkey: Though I'm really concerned about him being realistically rendered. :& Todd: And this time he'll be "realistic". :P Todd: Hahah Todd: Nintendo should pull a MGS2 [ 3 ] . :) DeathMonkey: :& DeathMonkey: NOOOOO Todd: Buy a Zelda game 3 hours in you're Tingle! Todd: On an epic fairy quest! DeathMonkey: NOOOOOOOO Todd: Best joke EVA. [ 1 ] Tingle has always been disturbing. He's a 35 year old "fairy" that's appeared in the Legend of Zelda series. His catch-phrase is "Tingle-Tingle, Kooloo-Limpah!" [ 2 ] Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess is the next game in the series. [ 3 ] Metal Gear Solid 2:

I've started listening to Scientific American's 60-Second Science podcast this week and they had an excellent Halloween story that's too good not to share.

Sid Meier's Railroads! went gold early Monday afternoon and should be hitting the shelves around October 17th. While I don't think it'll ever be "fun" to finish a game, working on Railroads! with my team at Firaxis has been an awesome experience from beginning to end. I'm immensely proud to have worked with these individuals and, for the first time, feel that I contributed a significant portion to the final product. It's hard to know how well an economic strategy game with trains will do in one of the toughest Christmas seasons in years (with the PS3 and Wii launches and the World of Warcraft expansion), but I hope that it surprises some people who wouldn't normally expect to enjoy laying track, dropping depots, and routing trains. I've always enjoyed economic strategy games, and I feel like we've made a title that stands with the best of them. Official site (Best promo site for a game I've worked on.) Demonstration Video Previews: GameS

Just when I think that I'm somehow less nerdy that I was before, I do something that not only fastens the geek badge to my chest, it shines it up and makes me puff my chest out. That's how I felt at 8 a.m. this (Sunday!) morning driving around to various Targets and WalMarts trying to get my hands on Nintendo's revision of it's workhorse handheld. I wouldn't have felt the nerdiness as pronounced if I didn't have company. When I wandered into Target, there're four other people awaiting the system's release. A father and his 10 year old kid, and a young Asian couple. The Target said that it would release on Tuesday instead of Sunday, despite people arguing that Nintendo's own website listed it as releasing today. (I heard the manager say that they sold some of the systems early, and Nintendo may have fined them and forced them to release it at a later date. Who knows.) So I headed back home, called around trying to find the system somewhere. Called a W

This is the first World Cup that I've paid attention to; I've seen matches in the past, but I didn't care at all. The reason I care now is sort of weird and embarassingly speaks to how much games influence my life. I've developed interests in my life from topics of videogames I've enjoyed. I've read Theodore Doge's books about Alexander the Great , Hannibal , and Julius Ceasar from working on the expansion pack for Rise of Nations . Started looking at Wassily Kandinsky's art after being mesmerized by Rez . Now I'm watching the World Cup thanks to Winning Eleven . The World Cup often has great matches. The lack of commercial breaks makes it a great viewing experience; games typically clock in only a few minutes later than the 90 minutes played. The level of enthusiasm of the crowd and the players on the field is nearly unmatched, even in the preliminary games. The tournament is quite short, so every game, every goal can have a drastic impact on how

Paul Barnett of Mythic Entertainment gives an inspired pitch for Warhammer Online. Barnett is a master; it is hard to watch his funny, involving, and informative spiel without getting excited about his game. Brilliant!

Friday afternoon, Don, Casey, and I were "testing" Sid Meier's Railroads multiplayer. The game involves laying down railroad track, building depots, buying and routing trains around to pick up goods at certain industries and deliver them elsewhere to make money. The way to win the scenario was by buying out all of your opponents' stock. Anyways, Casey was having a good game and I was having a bad one, and he bought me out pretty early on, with a complimentary "suck it!" when he purchased the last bit of my stock. When you buy out a player you get ownership of all their tracks, trains, and stations, but somehow I was still making money even though I was out of the game. It turns out when a buyout occured, the trains change owners but the train cars did not. So Casey's trains that were once mine weren't making him any money; in fact, they were actually losing money because he had to pay maintenance on all of them while I (a "dead player") wa

Where's my amazingly lucid, erudite comments about current videogames? What's up with all these stupid photos? I like taking pictures. My parents got me a camera. I tend to take the most pictures when my family is around. Voila. Here's some videogame stuff: Winning Eleven 9 is awesome. I wish Nintendo would release the DS Lite in the US before I die. (Or before the "New" Super Mario Bros.)

My favorite shot with our new camera.

Untrustworthy fellows.

My family resting in the National Art Gallery. You can tell a lot about people's current emotions by their facial expressions.

Names, by their nature, are definitive things and perception is more potent than reality. In the most crucial moment of Nintendo's existence, they cover the shoulders of their best hope with an albatross of a name.

November. Second controller can play rhythm or bass guitar.

I was going to write a reasonably big 2005 wrap-up post, but being mid-Feburary I don't see the point. I did write a couple of short reviews and I'd hate to see them go to waste. So here we go! Pheonix Wright: Ace Attorney ds Who said adventure games are dead? There's not much game there really - Capcom avoids the dreaded adventure game "getting stuck" by making a linear path with limited choices. The amusement comes from great characters and dead-on comic timing. It's 3/4ths Matlock with 1/4th of wacky Dragonball Z thrown in. Don't expect to learn anything about law, but you're sure to laugh and have a good time. Yoshi's Touch & Go ds Maligned as a throw-away tech demo, YT&G is the most refined touch-screen arcade game I've played. There's none of the structure, the bosses, the fire/ice/jungle levels that players tend to expect of platformers, but there's a surprising richness to the game in balancing the needs of clearing t

My life's been interesting for a while; finally things have settled down a bit. I left my position at Big Huge Games and recently joined Firaxis to work on an unannounced title. I wish Big Huge Games the best; I'm extremely proud that I was invited to work with them on Rise of Nations and Rise of Legends. ( Rise of Legends has been getting some excellent previews , btw.) They are an exceptionally talented development team. I wish them the best of luck and I hope Rise of Legends tops the charts for a long time and my friends make a lot of money. That said, I'm thrilled to be working on this project at Firaxis and will share details as soon as I have a chance. In other news, my brother, Todd, got a job designing cellphone games at GameLoft in Manhattan. We both want to be game designers and I'm a bit jealous that he gets his shot first. It's his dream job, but he's not much of a big city guy. Seeing some hilarious stories on the horizon, I harassed him into ma