I happily downloaded Streets of Rage 2 on XBLA and booted it up and it was awesome. Plus Stages 1-4 I was kicking total ass using "Skate" as a character. I also remembered how creative in terms of environments Streets of Rage 2 had, very unique and fun..ie: baseball diamond elevator! Any ways I hit around stage 5 and I get pwned on the ship at one point and have to continue, which then becomes my awful downfall to the boxing like boss (forget his name). I was playing on Normal but all of a sudden it got so hard, and I loved every minute of it.

I've always had a little more love for the Final Fight games but this beat 'em up really is quite the gem. Download it now if you haven't yet.

Upon reading Xavier's recent blog post about Blast Corps there was another Nintendo 64 game that really caught my eye from the beginning of seeing it in an issue of Nintendo Power. This game was of course, Mischief Makers, an actually amazing and technologically advanced 2D/3D hybrid game that seemed to slip by most of the radar. This 2D/3D hybrid type of a game is not seen very much now but just imagine the possibilities on the next gen systems to display amazingly beautiful 2D sprite art mixed with 3D backgrounds and shifting enviroments. Some games have pulled off the 2D/3D look fairly well like the ever so popular Marvel vs. Capcom 1/2 but Mischief Makers is a whole different animal.

This gem of a game was developed by Treasure who I already treasured myself for creating one of the best console shoot 'em up titles for the Sega Genesis called Gunstar Heroes. Although this game had more puzzle elements and platforming than attacking it still had it's fair share of attacking and massive bosses. I remember first playing the "Cerberus Alpha" boss and being amazed by the detail and him reacting to you're every move, it was so lifelike. You played as a cyborg type robot which the game refers to as Marina, developed by a man named Professor Theo. While visiting the planet Clancer he is kidnapped by the Empire and therefore sets Marina off to go save him.

The game's graphics at the time were simply incredible to me displaying bright and vibrant colors which kind of reminded me of a style somewhat similiar to Yoshi's Island for SNES (many of the enemies look extremely similiar to shy guys). Anyone who has played this game will also remember the fairly challenging difficulty, especially in getting the yellow gem in each stage which would in the end contain a section of the ending cutscene, certainly a nice little incentive to play levels again and make sure to really search hard, and some are really hard to find.

While IGN game this game a 6.2/10 back in the day, I certainly don't agree with it. I remember waiting for this game because of it's creative appeal and interesting gameplay mechanics. While this game isn't on my top games list or anything it would definitely make my list of top N64 titles to ever reach the console. It gives you those rare moments quite often that makes you realize and be grateful that you love video games and that 2D games can make it in a 3D world.

Side Note: Who remembers the track and field levels? The race was so damn difficult, at least to get the yellow gem, I remember you had to button mash faster than humanly possible. Awesome.

According to:
http://game.snkplaymore.co.jp/consumer/schedule.php and
http://game.snkplaymore.co.jp/press_releases/index_press.php?num=112

it looks as though the highly frantic and extremely praised Metal Slug 3 is on its way to the XBLA. Although, it is still unclear as to if this is just for Japanese 360 users or not, only time will tell.

No confirmed release date or pricing information yet.

Upon watching the trailer a little while back I was skeptical about this movie as maybe having a few moments but not enough to be a really great video game documentary. I recently came across it again now knowing it was out in theatres and made sure of it hoping it was playing in my area. Luckily one theatre in the city is showing it and I plan to see it soon. As of today I'm actually very excited to see it. IGN.com recently gave it 4.5/5 stars comparing it to other very well done documentaries such as Spellbound and DiG.

In case anybody reading this is unfamiliar with the story, it basically follows two very different people who both have claimed to have the highest score in one of the most difficult classic arcade games ever..Donkey Kong. While one(Billy Mitchell) has been a renowed classic video game player since the gecko achieving high scores in many games (most famous for his Donkey Kong score), the other a newcomer and ex middle school science teacher Steve Wiebe who discovered Donkey Kong much later and helped him get through a tough time getting fired from his job and realizing his gift in Donkey Kong. The story goes much deeper but basically the movie is both's race to get the highest score for the new 2007 Guiness Book of World Records.

I'm really excited to see this movie not that much because of the video game aspect but rather that I haven't seen a really good documentary in quite some time and this formula seems like an instant gem. So if anybody has already seen it, shed your light on the film and what you enjoyed about it, just don't ruin it for me!

PS: Also according to IGN it seems that New Line Cinema is planning to make a fictionalized version of the story supposidely featuring the same director (Seth Gordon). For now the documentary will have to do and I plan on leaving more than satisfied.

So while I know most people are extremely involved with Bioshock at the moment, it's definitely worth mentioning the skate demo that got released early this morning. While I thought Bioshock was pretty cool from the demo, FPSs lately haven't really been my fancy and I've been waiting for this skate demo ever since it was being developed. Overall it's a really good day for Xbox 360 users with Bioshock and the skate demo out today.

The skate demo is absolutely incredible and also at the same time hard. It is a good challenging hard though that is fair but sometimes unforgivable. The demo is vast with tutorials to help get you started, challenges, and the skate.reel feature which allows you to get 30 seconds of footy and upload to their servers. I believe the full game will allow a minute of footy. Either way, the community center is absolutely vast and probably about five times bigger than the skate park in the THP8 demo. The demo certainly is great practice until the actual game drops on September 12th for Xbox 360 and once you start landing your first flip tricks and grinds, it feels all so good and you know why this game is much much better than playing the same old rehashed Tony Hawk games. Sure, not everything is quite perfect, but it's pretty damn close to being perfect. I've been told that the demo is not quite the finished game and they have polished it a bit and while some people have complained about the floaty physics, in my opinion i don't see what people have been talking about, it's not bad at all and it gives you the ability to actually pull off tricks when you get another second or two of hang time.

Overall, I'm extremely satisfied and I can't wait to pick up the full game. For now, it's all about shredding up the community center until then, it's so much fun anyways, I'd almost be satisfied if this were the whole game...I'm just kidding but still, this is definitely one of the best and most filling demos to come out on the Live Marketplace yet, so what are you waiting for?

Yes, it is sadly true. The demo which was supposed to hit the Xbox Live Marketplace tomorrow (8/15) was delayed due to a minor bug. This minor bug deals with an online feature which allows you to use within the demo, a first in a demo enviroment on XBL (disregarding multiplayer demos). In this vast 30 minute time limit demo, you will be able to use the new "skate.reel" feature which allows you to cut, edit, and create your own skate clips and upload them to the EA server which will be available to watch by anyone who has the internet. It's quite neat and impressive and a nice add on to the demo which I have been waiting for eagerly for a couple months. No word on when the demo will now arrive on the XBL but according to posts on the EA Skate's forum page from the main developer (Scott Blackwood), the newly fixed demo is already in the hands of Microsoft and is awaiting to be approved. If all goes well there is a very slight chance of it coming out before or during the weekend but most likely near the beginning of next week. Let all skateboarding fans with Xbox 360s keep our fingers crossed because this demo certainly will provide the best replay value a demo can get. Just remember when the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 and 2 demos came out for Playstation, except much more exciting.